


The Stone Angel

by FuckYeahChilton



Category: Supernatural
Genre: A little Supernatural Fairytale, Destiel - Freeform, I don't want to spoil too much, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-24 04:42:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8357707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuckYeahChilton/pseuds/FuckYeahChilton
Summary: On his sixth birthday, Dean Winchester gets saved by an angel. An encounter that will change the boy's whole life. But also the angels'.





	1. 1985

**Author's Note:**

> Hello to whoever stumbles over this story =)
> 
> It was a little thingy I started writing when my head was too full with crap to focus on my other stories so I needed something not too heavy and came up with an idea and here is the first chapter.
> 
> I don't think many people will be interested in this because it is porn-free but if you like it and want to read more, leave me a comment =)

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

Six-year-old Dean Winchester was on his way home from the bakery.  
It was his birthday and the first time ever he was allowed to go out alone.  
His task was to get bread for breakfast, because he was a big boy now, moreover he had been allowed to get a piece of his favorite pie because it was his special day.

Proud and excited that he had got everything done, he was almost hopping down the street to his parents’ house that was just around the corner.

The little Winchester would not be back in time to see how lovely John and Mary had decorated the living room as surprise while he was gone…

Dean lazily opened his eyes and everything was blurry.  
He was lying on the cold ground in a dark alley, above him, strange men, all dressed in black with hoods hiding half of their faces.  
All energy taken from him, Dean wasn’t able to move, feeling something inside him fading away.  
He blacked out.  
When he opened his eyes again, he saw a man in a trench coat, fighting three of those dressed in black; then he drifted back to unconsciousness.

The next time Dean opened his eyes, he felt fresh air brushing his face and saw the night sky above his head.  
He felt safe, warm..until he looked down and realized he was high up in the air.  
Dean clutched at the man who was holding him close and started whimpering.  
Wasn’t he supposed to eat pie and unpack his birthday presents?  
Why was he flying through the air? This was no fun at all.

“Shh.. I won’t hurt you..,” the deep voice of the stranger said, “I keep you safe, I promise.”

“I know..,” little Dean whined, “You saved me from the bad men..”  
“Yes. You weren’t supposed to wake up yet, I’m sorry if I scared you,” the stranger in the trench coat kept talking.  
“You don’t scare me, flying does.” Dean confessed and sniffed.  
Wasn’t he a big boy now? First he had failed getting breakfast, now he was whiny.

“Oh..,” the stranger said and was silent for a little while.  
“Then close your eyes and when I tell you to open them again, we will be back on the ground, okay?”  
“Okay.”  
Dean closed his eyes and dug his little fingers into the fabric of the coat so tightly that he accidentally ripped a button off and opened his eyes again.  
Hoping the man wouldn’t notice, he slipped it in his pocket and looked over the man’s shoulder, examining the dark wings that spread from his back and carried them through the air like a bird’s.

“Are you an angel?” Dean asked curiously, not crying anymore now.  
His mom had told him a lot about angels.  
The man hesitated before he answered but eventually he said: “Yes, I am.”  
“Are you my guardian angel?” Dean kept asking and the man smiled.  
“If you want me to, then I’ll be your guardian angel.”  
“Oh yes, please! That is so cool, that is the best birthday present ever,” Dean said, his voice full of excitement and he looked at the man with bright eyes.  
The angel smiled at the boy and felt his heart fill with warmth.

“Today is your birthday? How old are you now?”  
“Six!” Dean said, filled with pride, “And you?”  
“Oh, I am over a billion years old,” the angel said.  
“No way!” Dean yelled and his eyes got bigger.  
“I’m afraid yes,” the angel replied and smiled at the boy.

“That’s hell of a lot of birthdays!” Dean said, smiling back and decided that he liked the angel’s face.  
He had kind eyes and a friendly smile.

“What’s your name?” he kept asking, not realizing that they were back on the ground already.  
“Castiel. What is yours?”  
“Dean Winchester! Hi Casti..Ca.. Cas,” he decided because the unusual name was hard to pronounce for him.  
“Hello Dean.” The angel smiled and then he looked around.  
Dean did the same and asked: “Where are we?”  
“In the woods. The men who tried to hurt you followed me so I had to bring you far away.”  
“Crap, mom and dad will be so mad because I didn’t come home..” Dean mumbled and instinctively reached for the angel’s hand.  
“No, they will be very relieved when I bring you back home, I promise. Are you afraid of the dark?”  
“Nah, just of flying.”  
“Then let’s stay here and return in the morning, alright?”  
“Yup.”

Castiel took off his trench coat and put it on the ground for Dean to sit on.  
He sat down next to him, covering the little boy’s body with one wing to keep him safe from the cold air.  
The angel mused if he should tell the boy the truth about what had almost happened to him and knowing he had to erase his memory of this night anyway, he decided to do so.

“Do you have an idea why those men wanted to hurt you?”

“No.. Did I do something to upset them?”

Castiel looked at the little boy with those bright green eyes and the freckled nose and frowned.  
“Why do you think this was your fault?”  
“Dunno..” Dean mumbled and scratched his head.  
“Things are often my fault?”

“Well, this is not. Those men were soul eaters. They live from souls and because children’s souls are the most pure and bright ones, they go after children. We angels are sent out to protect those souls. And your soul is especially bright, that is why I had to get you far away from those men.”

“That is scary! Will they haunt me? Or my brother?”

Castiel took a deep breath because he wasn’t used to be asked so many questions all at once, but he was pleased to answer every single one of them.  
“Not if I mark you with a protection rune. But I need your permission to do that.”

“Does it hurt?”

“No, I will be careful. It might tickle a bit.”

Dean chewed on his lower lip for a while; seemingly deep in thoughts, then he nodded.

“That’s fine, I guess,”he decided and Castiel nodded.  
The angel let his hand hover above Dean’s chest and the boy was mesmerized by the light that came from his palm and went right through the fabric of his t-shirt and into his skin.  
Cas was right, it tickled a bit and felt warm.  
When the angel was done, Dean pulled up his shirt to look at what he did and his eyes widened.

“Oh crap, I mean, I am six now but mom just let me go to the bakery alone, she will freak out if I come home from a date with a billion years old dude and a tattoo.”

This time Castiel couldn’t stop himself from laughing out loud; this Winchester-kid was just too adorable to be true.  
“Maybe you should try to get some sleep now, Dean. I will watch over you.”, Castiel suggested but the boy didn’t look like he approved.  
He wanted to know more about angels, but when a wolf suddenly cried out in the distance, he jumped and clung to Castiel’s arm.

“A bit scary after all, isn’t it? The dark forest..,” Cas said and Dean took a deep breath.  
“Forests aren’t scary, but wolves are. What if it’s a werewolf?”  
“I will keep you safe, no matter what,” the angel promised and tried to change the topic to distract the kid in his charge.  
“What animals do you like? I like bees.” Castiel said and Dean looked at him.  
“Bees are scary too! They sting you and then it hurts!”  
“Actually, bees are very very important for nature. If you don’t threaten them, they will leave you alone.”  
“Really?”  
“I promise.”  
Dean huffed, he wasn’t convinced.  
“Without bees, there would be no apples.”  
“What?? But then there would be no apple pie!!”  
“Exactly.”  
“Okay, I will never hit a bee again, now I like bees too.”  
Castiel smiled.  
“I like cars, one day I want one like my dad has!” Dean said, “Then I’ll pick you up for a road trip!”  
“I’d like that. I’ve never been on a road trip.” Cas said, a little sad that it won’t ever happen, though.  
“Never in a billion years???”  
“Well…to my defense, most of those years there weren’t cars.”  
“Ah. Right. Wait…have you seen real dinosaurs?”  
“Yes I have but they weren’t so companionable.”  
“Wow, you are the coolest dude in the whole world, Cas! Except the car thing..”  
“You are pretty cool yourself, little man.” Cas smiled and Dean yawned, snuggling against his new friend.  
“What else do you like, Dean? What’s your favorite flower?” the angel kept asking because he realized it made the kid tired.  
“Uhm…I like sunflowers..”  
“I like sunflowers, too.” Cas said and Dean grinned.  
“Because they are yellow, like bees?”  
“No, because they turn to the sun. I also like cherry blossoms.”  
“I like autumn, when the trees become colorful. I want them always to be like that.”  
“But isn’t it good to know that it will happen every year and you can look forward to it?”  
“Hhmmh..” Dean hummed and the angel noticed that he was already almost asleep.  
“Good night, little Dean. You were very brave today..,” the angel whispered and pulled the part of the trench coat Dean was not sleeping on over his tiny body.

He hoped the soul eaters would have moved on in the morning, they had to stay alive, therefore they needed to feed.  
A pure and bright soul like Dean Winchester’s would have kept them alive for weeks but Castiel would never let them have this soul, not in a billion years.  
The angel had saved many souls over the years and he had always managed to do so without the children remember anything.  
What went wrong this time?  
And why did his chest feel so heavy, knowing that this child would not remember him after tomorrow.  
But that was the curse of being an angel..

The next morning, little Dean wasn’t so scared of flying with Cas anymore.  
He trusted his angel friend and even had a little fun flying through the air.

“Will you come to my birthday party? I didn’t have one yet.” Dean asked but Cas shook his head.  
“I’m sorry, I can’t come. I would love to but I have..uhm..business to do.” Cas excused himself and Dean pouted.  
“But I want you to be there.. I will miss you if you are not.”  
“No, you won’t.”  
“Yes I will.”  
“No, you won’t.”  
“Why?”  
“Because you won’t remember me anymore. You won’t remember any of this night as soon as you’re back home. It will be like we never met.”

Little Dean, who had his arms wrapped around Castiel’s neck, tightened his grip and started to cry.

“Hey, you don’t need to be sad, you won’t miss anything,” Castiel tried to soothe him but it didn’t work.  
Instead of just being sad, now Dean got sad and angry all at once.  
“Why don’t you want to be my friend, why do you want to forget me?” Dean sobbed angrily, almost breaking the angel’s heart.  
“It’s nothing like that, Dean. It’s a rule that humans are not allowed to know about us. There are stories, legends, but no proof so… I will keep watching over you, like I promised. You just won’t know..”  
“No, no that is not fair.” Dean hiccupped while tears kept streaming over his little face.  
“You saved me. You are my friend; I don’t want to forget you.”

Castiel blinked away a single tear.  
It was hard to admit for him that he didn’t want to be forgotten either.  
He wanted to be real for someone and he wanted this road trip when Dean was old enough.  
The angel was quiet for a while, holding the crying boy tight; then he made a decision. 

“You have to promise me, that you will keep this as a secret forever. Only then I can be your friend and stay in your mind. Can you promise me this, Dean?”  
“I promise. I promise, just don’t make my memory go away.” Dean almost begged and hugged his angel a little more.  
“It’s alright Dean, I won’t do it. Please don’t cry anymore, okay..”  
Dean calmed down.  
He always had a hard time being around other children and that made him end up with no friends at all and he didn’t want to lose the only friend he had.

“Okay. I won’t.” Dean said, sniffed and rubbed his nose.  
“So will you come to my birthday party?”  
“I promise I will be there but I will stay invisible, how does that sound?”  
“Lame. I had invisible friends before.”  
“But your parents can’t know about me, you remember? Our secret.”  
“Ah. Right… Okay. As long as you are there.” Dean smiled and Cas nodded.

They arrived close to Dean’s neighborhood and Castiel chose an empty street to land and the moment his feet touched the ground, they became visible for the mundane world.  
The angel escorted Dean to the corner of his street and stopped there.

“Will you make the rest of the way on your own?” Cas asked and Dean nodded.  
“Sure. I am a big boy!” he said and the angel smiled.  
“And a brave one. I am glad that you are my friend.”, Cas said and Dean hugged him good bye.  
“Me too. Thanks for saving me, Cas.”  
“Anytime,” the angel said and waved while watching the boy go.  
Dean turned around two times and waved back.  
The third time, Cas was gone.

Dean hurried to get back home and stopped a few meters away from the house because there was a police car, as well as the local news car parking in front of it.  
Scared that something had happened to his family, Dean started running.  
The front door was open and he dashed into the house, starting to yell immediately.  
“MOM, DAD!?”  
Everything was silent; then he heard his mother’s voice.  
“Dean?”  
The next moment, Mary came running from the living room, lifted her son up and hugged him tightly.  
“Dean, thank God.”, she breathed, then she started to cry.  
“Mom, why is there a police car outside? Did something happen?”  
Mary laughed while she was still crying.  
“Oh Dean.. we were so worried. What happened? Where were you, are you hurt?” she asked and looked at his face, touching his cheek to see if everything was still there.  
By now, John and a policeman also entered the hallway.  
He carried Sam in his arms and had tears in his eyes as well.

“Dean…buddy, where have you been? Are you alright?” he asked with concern in his broken voice and patted his older sons head.  
“No, I’m fine. Why is everyone so upset?” Dean asked and felt like crying, too.  
He wanted so badly to tell his parents the story about the bad men and how Castiel saved him.  
How he flew through the air and hid in the woods through the night, covered in angel feathers.  
But he knew he had to keep his promise.

“I got lost. When it turned dark, I hid in an empty house. A friendly man found me and brought me home,” he lied and the couple exchanged a wary glance.  
“You were running around the whole day?” Mary asked and Dean nodded.

“Okay, maybe you make your son some hot cocoa and let him calm down a bit and if you have anything to report, please call me,” the police officer said and handed a card over to John.  
“Wait, what do you mean report something? Our son is back at home; that is all I guess.” Mary said and John nodded.  
“That’s true and that is most important, but we still don’t know what happened. I also suggest letting a doctor have a look. Just in case.”  
“Case, what case? What are you implying?” Mary asked but then the news woman appeared.  
“I guess my job is done here. I’m glad your son is back,” she smiled at Dean. “Happy belated birthday little man.” she said and then she left the family alone because with no missing child, there was no story to broadcast.

The policeman started a new try.  
“Just a routine check. Dean had been missing a whole day and night.”  
“I’m okay, mom. Nothing happened to me.” Dean assured and Mary smiled at her son.  
“Maybe the policeman is right. You could have caught a cold,” she said and kissed him on the cheek.  
“I’m fine! Can you put me down now?”  
“Of course.”  
Mary released her son, who immediately ran away.  
She was looking after him with worry in her eyes, until he was vanished around the corner. 

Dean escaped into the living room, while Mary was talking to her husband.  
Everything was decorated for his birthday party, a huge, colorful banner, balloons, presents on the table….everything a six years old boy would wish for.  
He was wondering if Cas was already here, he knew the angel would be, but invisible.

Meanwhile in the hallway, John tried to calm his wife down.  
“He looks fine to me; maybe we can skip the doctor. Let’s just celebrate his birthday and forget about this,” he suggested, but she shook her head.  
“How can we just forget about our son being missing for a whole day and night? Do you really believe he got lost on the way to the bakery? It is just around the block, Dean is a smart kid, he always was. Even if he lost his way, he would have asked someone for help, don’t you think?”  
“Maybe he didn’t want to fail his first alone mission and that’s why he didn’t?” John countered but Mary still wasn’t convinced.  
“Maybe, if I could believe that he really got lost. I’m sorry, I don’t want to summon demons here, but what if someone took him and hurt him and now he is traumatized and.. I just want to make sure everything is alright.”

Before John could reply something, Sam started to cry in his arms.  
The youngest Winchester wasn’t a whiny child but he felt that his parents were upset and he didn’t like that at all.  
“Shhh..hey Sammy, it’s alright, your big brother is back from his adventure, how about we eat some cake now, hm?” John said and carried his son into the living room, followed by Mary.

Dean was sitting at the table, already shamelessly eating cake because just now he had realized how hungry he was.  
He froze when his parents entered the room because he felt caught.

“It’s okay Dean, eat as much as you want, it is your birthday-cake.” Mary said with a smile, knowing her son too well.  
She sat down next to him, rubbing his back.  
Dean didn’t even flinch and kept stuffing cake into his mouth, his face covered with whipped cream already.  
“It must have been cold during the night, do you want some hot cocoa?” she asked and Dean nodded.  
“But it wasn’t cold.” he said, thinking of Castiel’s wings that protected him from the chilly air.  
“Did you get some sleep? You don’t look tired..”  
Another weird thing about her boy being out all night. A child should be scared all alone, right?  
“Yeah, I did.”, Dean said. “I slept well. Why are you asking me so many questions? Can’t I get my presents now?”

“Yeah you can, but later we go see the doctor, okay?”

Dean threw his fork on the ground and jumped up.  
“I don’t wanna go to the doctor!” he yelled and stormed out of the room, up the stairs.  
There was no way a doctor could check on him, they would see the rune and then he had to come up with a story that wasn’t about an angel who did that to protect his soul from soul eaters, but would still be believable.  
He hid in his room, under the blanket on his bed and closed his eyes, hoping his parents wouldn’t come after him.

“What should I do now, Cas? What should I tell them?” he mumbled into his pillow, face buried deep into it.

The angel Castiel heard young Dean’s call, but he couldn’t follow it to help his little friend.  
He was standing in the middle of a meadow, somewhere in the countryside, facing his superior.

“You broke the rules, Castiel,” a female angel called Hannah said, while she walked up and down in front of him.

“I know.”

“Will you fix it or will you live with the consequences?”

“I won’t ‘fix’ it. I will not break my promise.” Castiel said, his eyes following the woman’s movements.

“So you choose your pride over your life?”

“I choose to respect this little boy’s wish over my life.”

Hannah laughed dryly.

“It is not respect, it is egoism.”

“What is so wrong with not wanting to be forgotten? I save souls day after day and have to make it look like nothing ever happened. I am basically not existent; to no one.”, Castiel spat and Hannah sighed.

“Please, let me be this child’s guardian.”

“Not going to happen. But I will accomplish your desire. You want to be visible and unforgettable for the mundane world? So shall it be.” she said and reached out to touch Castiel.  
He shot her one last, pleading look, then he felt his body slowly turning into stone.  
Not able to move or to speak anymore, he still faced Hannah, who was now standing in front of him, looking at her work.

“What a waste.. Good luck, Castiel. I hope that kid was worth it.”

 

 

***

 

 


	2. 1985 (part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again =)
> 
> Thank you so much to those who left a comment!! I am happy to see someone interested in this little story =)
> 
> I hope you like the next chapter as well <3

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

One week has passed since Dean’s birthday.  
Of course they had visited the doctor and of course he had found the rune with no explanation how a tattoo could suddenly be there, perfectly healed and no sign of violence or drugs or anything harmful that could have happened to Dean.

John and Mary had consulted the police as well as a psychiatrist to get any information out of the boy but no chance.  
Instead, Dean had stopped talking at all, except for the nights, when Mary could hear her son talk to someone, but when she opened the door, there was no one and Dean always pretended to be asleep.

“Dean was okay when he came home, we should have let it go.” John said when the couple was sitting at the kitchen table, sharing a cup of tea and clueless what to do with their son.

“Someone abused our son and don’t tell me again that tattooing him isn’t abusive. It is.” Mary argued, twisting the mug between her fingers before she took a sip.

“Whoever did that, Dean is protecting him for whatever reason. He said a man found him and brought him home. When we find that man, we might get our answers.”

“Today I got the clothes back Dean was wearing that day. They didn’t find any traces, no strange DNA, no hair…only this.” Mary said and pulled a button out of her pocket, handing it over to John.

“There were only Dean’s fingerprints on it,” she added.

John took the button and flipped it around.  
“Looks like from a classic coat or something..”  
“It might be the only trace to the strange man he had contact with… No one saw Dean walking around that day, we don’t even know if the so called empty house where he found shelter actually exists.”

“I guess we won’t ever find out the truth if Dean isn’t talking..” John sighed.

“The psychiatrist gave me an advice so I bought new paper and colored pencils for Dean. I’m not sure if he’s more traumatized by all the things that happened after we found the tattoo or by the actual events that led to it but maybe he finds a way to deal with it through drawing..”

“It is worth a try.. Anything that gives us our boy back..”

“I will bring him a piece of pie and see if he reacts somehow when seeing the button. You watch Sammy.” Mary said and stood up.  
She walked upstairs, her heart feeling heavy in her chest.  
Seeing her son having lost all his trust in her hurt so badly and she just wanted her baby back, whatever it would take.

Mary knocked at the door twice and stepped in because she didn’t expect an answer anyway.  
To her surprise, Dean was actually sitting at his desk and busy with trying out his new drawing material.  
“Hey, baby…Thought you might need some energy? I brought pie,” she said softly and watched over her son’s shoulder while placing the plate next to him.  
Her heart skipped a beat when she saw what he was drawing.  
It was obviously a man, wearing a coat in a matching color to the button.

This was her chance, she thought, and knelt down next to her son.  
“That is beautiful, Dean. Is that the man who kept you save?” Mary chose her words very carefully, considering that Dean seemed to protect this man for some reason.

Dean said nothing, but Mary didn’t want to give up yet.  
“Why does he have wings?”

“Can’t tell.” Dean finally replied.

“You know…I would like to thank him. For bringing you home..,” Mary said, ruffling through her son’s short hair.

Dean shook his head and Mary sighed.  
“Look what I found!” she said and presented the button.  
For a split second, Dean’s face lit up; then it turned sad and he took the button, holding it tight in his little hand.

“What happened that night, Dean? I promise, I won’t be angry.. I just want to understand..”

“I can’t tell. I promised..”

“Can’t you tell me anything about it? That man, did he hurt you? Please, I need to know.”

Dean bit on his lower lip, considering whether to tell his mom something or not and sighed eventually.  
“There were bad men who tried to hurt me, but not him. He saved me. He is my friend.”

“Then don’t you want to invite your friend over so that we can thank him for his help?”

“I wanted him to come to my birthday party… But then there wasn’t a party..” Dean sniffed and Mary pulled him into her arms.

“I’m so sorry, Dean, I didn’t want you to go through all of this… We were just worried..”

“I said I was fine.”

“And I should have trusted you but you know, parents always worry too much but that is only because we love you very very much, I hope you know that Dean.” 

Dean nodded.  
“So, can you tell me more about your new friend?” Mary smiled.

Again Dean thought about what to do for a while.   
He wasn’t allowed to talk about angels, but his mom already knew about his friend now anyway.

“His name is Cas. He likes bees.” Dean said eventually and took a yellow pencil to draw a few bees, flying around the angel’s head.

“That is a nice name. Do you think you can help us find Cas so he can help us find the bad men?”

Dean shook his head.

“But what if they try to hurt other children, don’t you want them to be caught?”

“That’s fine. Cas is taking care of it. He is very strong.”

“Like a superhero?” Mary asked and Dean smiled absentmindedly.

“Yeah. Like a superhero.”

Slowly Mary started to believe that this man called Cas had in fact been a good guy, yet she wanted to meet him more than ever because he was the key to the truth.

“I understand. Superheroes have to stay in the shadows, right?” Mary said and kissed Dean’s head, “I don’t want to keep you from drawing but you will come down for dinner, right?”

“Okay.” Dean smiled and focused on his drawing again.

 

Later that day, Mary caught her son standing in the garden.  
It was a freezing cold day so she immediately started to worry but then she decided to watch him first.  
He was holding the button up and seemingly talking to the sky.

“I’m so sorry I ripped it off, Cas. You can have it back now, please don’t be mad at me. You can also come over, I didn’t tell mom that you’re an angel but she wants to meet you so…please come, okay? I miss you.”

Dean seemed to wait for a reply or anything to happen but nothing happened.  
Mary sighed and stepped outside.

“Dean, what are you doing there? Come in, it’s cold!” she called and Dean turned around in a haste, looking like he got caught in the act at first, then he relaxed and followed his mother’s order.

She shooed her son into the kitchen and closed the door with mixed feelings.  
What if Dean had just made up a superhero named Cas in a situation where he had been all alone and scared…

“John?” she called and listened to the footsteps coming closer, until her husband appeared in the living room. Then she turned around.

“Dean talked to me. He drew a man in a beige coat with wings, saying his name was Cas and that he saved him. I just caught him trying to give him back his button outside in the garden. He was talking to no one, though.”

“You think he made it up?”

“Possible. But there had to be someone whom he got that button from. I’m thinking about letting the police look for someone who fits that picture…”

“NO.”

Mary and John turned around, looking at Dean who was standing in the doorframe, his face red and a little furrow forming between his eyebrows.

“Dean…we just want to find him so we can ask him for..”

“I SAID NO. You can’t send the police after Cas, I should never have told you about him!” Dean started to cry.

John walked to his boy, kneeled down in front of him and grabbed his shoulders.  
“Then tell us why, tell us the truth!”

“Because…Because he is an angel! A real one! He put that rune on me to protect my soul! He didn’t hurt me but you think he did and the police will think he did and they will lock him up but he is my friend!” Dean was sobbing desperately and tried to escape from his father’s grip.

“Dean, you know angels aren’t real..” Mary said and he shot her an angry look.  
“You always told me about angels and now you say they aren’t real. LIAR.”

“ENOUGH!” John yelled and Dean winced.  
“Tell us the truth!”

“That is the truth.”

“John..”

“No. I have enough of this. You go up and stay in your room until you told us what really happened!” John said and released his son.

“I HATE YOU!” Dean yelled and stormed out of the kitchen and up the stairs.  
Mary had her eyes closed, massaging her temples.  
“Great..Now we won’t get anything out of him anymore..”

“I think the only truth we have to face here is that our son needs professional help. A real therapy.”

“He is six years old, John!”

“And pretending an angel saved him. He hasn’t talked for a week! Should we pretend everything is fine?”

“No…I guess you’re right.. I’m just…why had this all have to happen.. Why our son..”

John hurried to Mary and pulled her in his arms.

“We will get Dean the best help possible. We will make it through this.”

Upstairs in his room, Dean has crouched in a corner, uncontrollably crying.

“Cas, please come and take me away from here,” he sobbed and waited desperately for his friend to appear but nothing happened.  
He held the button tightly in his clenched fist, his eyes searching the room for the tiniest hint.  
“Please, Cas. I need you.”

_Dean_

“Cas?”  
Dean stopped crying and wiped his face clean with the sleeve of his shirt.

_Dean_

“Cas, where are you? Why can’t I see you?”

_Dean_

Instinctively believing his friend was in trouble, Dean jumped up and searched for his backpack.  
He stuffed it with a blanket, a pullover, a pack of cookies, a juice box, a pair of fresh socks and underwear, his pajama and his favorite teddy bear.

“Don’t worry, Cas. I’m going to find you.”  
He opened the door carefully and tiptoed down the stairs.  
Dean could hear his parents talk in the living room so he sneaked out of the house and the moment he had closed the door behind him, he started running.

He didn’t even know or care what direction he should head for, but he was determined to find his angel.

*

Castiel, caught in the stone cage that was his own body, was trying to send Dean a message after he heard his call.  
He wanted to tell him not to worry.  
He wanted to explain why he wasn’t able to be there for him.  
Instead, all that left his mind and reached the boy was his name.

 

 

***

 

 


	3. 1992

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who left a comment! That means so much to me. :'3  
> This is planned to be a 6 chapter story with several episodes of Dean's life so here's the second.  
> I also added a little drawing at the end of the chapter.
> 
> I hope you enjoy =)

  
  
  
  
  
  


***

  
  
  
  
  


Thirteen-year old Dean Winchester was standing in front of his new home, breathing in the fresh air.  
Was he feeling good?  
His parents thought it had been a good idea to move away from their town house and find a quieter home, in the countryside, with nature everywhere.  
It had been seven years ago when Dean got lost for the second time; found four days later in a hospital after an old lady had found him out in the cold, dehydrated and half frozen, hidden under his little blanket and clinging to his teddy bear.

It hadn’t been the last time Dean ran away to find his angel.  
The consequences had been months of therapy and being grounded, a real torture for Dean, until he decided to pretend.  
One day he started pretending that he had just made it all up.  
There had never been a Cas and the men who really hurt him had never been found.

It went quite well until recently, when a teacher caught Dean scribbling in the middle of math class and decided to give the book to the art teacher instead of punishing him.  
The art teacher called Dean’s parents to suggest supporting his talent after he had explained it was for a graphic novel.

The truth was, Dean was drawing the angel who once saved his life over and over to not forget what he looked like.  
His talent was improving over the years and holding on to the memories of his sixth birthday, by now he had drawn every detail of the night with Cas more than once, just to keep it real.

The moment Mary and John held the book in their hands, seeing that Dean was still obsessed with the angel in the trench coat, the drama started again, ending with the conclusion that going through therapy would make it all worse once more so they just accepted that Dean believed he was saved by an angel named Cas when he was a child, as long as it wasn’t interfering with his development.

Dean was doing okay in school, he was on a sports team and had a casual circle of friends.  
Still they thought it was a good idea to leave town, believing that bad memories could be haunting their son, making it unable for him to close the chapter that had been his sixth birthday.

Dean didn’t mind the change.  
He liked it quiet and he liked being close to the woods.  
Last night, when he heard a wolf cry, he smiled instead of being afraid.

“Come on Dean! Let’s play!” Sam darted out of the house, full of energy and the urge to discover the new environment.  
Dean smiled.  
“I don’t wanna play now, Sammy.” He said but his little brother was jumping up and down excitedly, holding a ball in his little hands.

“Come on, come on, come on!” he called but then he suddenly froze and turned pale.

“What’s wrong?” Dean asked and his brother pointed on where he had spotted the danger.  
“Don’t move! There’s a bee sitting on your hand!” Sam warned very seriously but Dean stayed cool and carefully lifted his hand up to expect the visitor.

“That’s okay, Sammy. Come here, it won’t hurt us. Hi there, buddy.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“You don’t have to be scared. If you don’t threaten the bee, it won’t hurt you. See?”

Sam still stayed at a safe distance but watched how the bee was crawling over his brother’s hand, stopped for a face-wash, kept crawling and then flew away.

“Thank you for the apple-pie!” Dean yelled after the insect and little Sam frowned.

“No bees, no apples.” Dean explained and Sam’s face lit up again. “Really? How do you know?”

“My friend Cas taught me.”

“The one you are talking to at night?”

“How do you know? You’re supposed to be asleep at night!”

Sam poked his tongue out and ran away, giggling.

Dean huffed softly and smiled.  
It took a lot to make him really angry at his little brother, he was so pure and never really judging anything Dean was doing.

He wasn’t sure how much his little brother knew or understood about what he had been through.  
The therapy, the struggles, the reason why they moved..  
All because Dean hadn’t been able to deny the existence of Cas at first, it just hadn’t felt right.  
Later he had learned how to pretend but never forgot.

He was wondering if Cas had forgotten about him, though.  
He had never heard of him again, not even a little sign and Dean assumed it was because he once broke the promise.  
Like in “Gremlins”; where you learn that you can have a rare and precious thing only if you follow the rules.  
Dean hadn’t been aware how rare and precious having an angel was when he was little.  
All he wanted, back in the days, was having a friend.  
Now, a little bit older though still a child, he understood better how special Cas was and all he wished for was a chance to apologize.

Dean sat down on the porch and watched his little brother kick the ball and run after it with seemingly endless energy.  
He got distracted by something that tickled the freckled back of his hand and he almost hit it but then he realized that there was another bee.  
Or was it the same one?  
The bee dashed into the air and started circling in front of Dean’s face.

“What’s up with you?” he asked, “I’m not a flower.”

The bee flew away and came back, again circling in front of his face.

_Dean_

Dean frowned and stood up slowly.  
A sudden impulse made him follow the insect without even watching where he was going, his eyes focused on the bee.

It never vanished out of Dean’s sight and it almost seemed like it made sure the boy was still following.

The journey ended in front of a huge hedge.  
The bee was able to just fly over it but Dean was too short to even reach the top with his hand.

“Hey! Wait!” he called out of breath and started running along the small, green leaves, trying to find a way through.

_Dean_

“Cas? Cas is that you? Are you there? Hold on, I’m coming!”

Determined to get to the other side, Dean searched for a spot where he could make it through, but the densely growing branches didn’t even allow him a glimpse on what was waiting on the other side.  
He kept walking and after a good hundred yards, he finally found a spot where he just needed to break a few branches to get through.  
His heart was beating so fast, he didn’t even realize that he had cut his arms a bit, all that mattered was that he finally made it to the other side and now, he was standing in front of a slightly overgrown but beautiful garden.  
Dean walked a few steps, looking at his surroundings in awe.  
There were colorful flowers of all kinds, trees glowing in beautiful autumn colors, cherry blossoms and sunflowers.  
Beside his own footsteps, a soft humming of bees swirling from flower to flower, broke the silence and made the place full of life.  
Dean wasn’t hesitating to discover the place more and after a while he saw something that caused his heart to skip a beat.

He was staring at a statue made of grey stone; a complete contrast to this beautiful, untouched piece of nature.  
But it wasn’t just any statue, it was a perfect portrayal of his angel-friend, every detail carved into stone so perfectly and exactly how he remembered him, even the wings.

_Dean_

Hearing the voice in his head again, Dean started running until he was standing right in front of the statue, looking up to the angel.

“Cas?”

His heartbeat was racing.  
Dean didn’t know why but for some reason he got the feeling that this was no statue after all.  
This was Cas.

Dean climbed the few steps to reach his friend and touched his hand carefully.

“Don't worry Cas. I found you.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
